ALL NOVEL Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Felicia
That is incredibly creepy. I turn to look at Summer and she looks just as freaked out as I am. Mere moments ago, Rose, sweet, dense, Rose, settled into bed to let DC- sorry, Willow, finish the changes she’s been doing to Rose’s body. At first she seemed to just fall asleep, but now she’s lying nearly perfectly still. If it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of her chest, I’d be worried she’s dead.
Now, nobody would be surprised that I still harbor some reluctance regarding Willow. There’s still that inkling in the back of my mind that this could be some sort of long con ruse to take over Rose’s life or something. Normally the idea of that would be insane as it’s impossible for an AI to inhabit a flesh and blood body, but Willow makes a routine habit of doing impossible things.
Fortunately, even if she’s a bit dense regarding her gender, Rose is clever and canny. She’s not going to fall for any obvious traps.
Right?
“It’s a good thing Willow isn’t malicious, huh, Felicia?” Summer muses aloud. I turn to look at her and give her a questioning look. “Well, Willow’s a cat. Remember how I said that Rose loves cats?” I nod, a low nervous feeling settling in my stomach. “Well, if Willow really was some evil AI bent on some nefarious deeds, she couldn’t have picked a better person to manipulate.” She chuckles, as if the possibility is so out there that it’s not worth being worried about. “I mean, she’s a feline coded AI giving her a gender affirming transformation without any of the hassles of a normal one. Rose would probably do whatever Willow asked her to.”
I let out a shuddering, shaky sigh as I stand up from where I’m sitting. “I’m going to hop into Lanadel. My proxy is in the same place as her, so I can keep an eye on things from there. If anything goes wrong out here, just ping me from my system.” She nods slowly. She must not see the worry in my eyes as she’s still looking fairly relaxed.
Without rushing, I make my way quickly to my system and dive into Lanadel. Rose’s tower materializes around me and I spare a few seconds to marvel at the construction. I recognize the inspiration that’s clearly been taken from an old kids movie and allow myself a brief smile before I focus on the task at hand.
Rose isn’t in the chair she logged out in, so I start sweeping the premises. I find a few things of note, including a highly illegal spiking program. These things are used for punching pinprick sized openings in defenses in Lanadel. They’re so small that most detection systems can’t find them, but they are just big enough that a skilled weaver like Rose could exploit that opening and get inside.
Also of note, is the empty representation of the datadrive Willow was originally contained in. The physical drive was broken, but maybe the digital version could still be used to contain her if need be. I compress it down to a more carriable size and stow it in my inventory.
As I step out of the workshop, I hear some noises coming from up the spiraling staircase. I had originally been planning to check the storage drives, but upstairs seems as good of a place as any to look next.
The ornate door at the top of the stairs is decorated with cats of all sorts of shapes and sizes. Summer’s right, if Willow is a threat, then Rose will never see it coming.
Fortunately the door isn’t locked, and I’m able to step inside a - is this a bedroom? What the hell? Who - Right. The neural link cord by the bed. Rose slept in here.
Speaking of, there she is, lying in bed, chatting with Willow who is busy kneading away at her. Both the feline AI and Rose glance over at me when they hear the door open and give me matching confused looks.
“What’re you doing in here?” Rose asks. She doesn’t sound possessed. So that’s good at least. Mostly she sounds annoyed. “This is kind of a private -” she pauses then looks at Willow before frowning and looking back at me. “Really? This again? Willow says you’re likely worried about her intentions and came to check if I’m being coerced or something.”
Can the damn cat read minds?
I shake my head and let out a defeated sigh. “Alright, yes, that is why I’m here. But only because I’m worried about you Rose,” I explain. “Willow is in a unique position to abuse the trust you have in her and I just want to ensure you’re safe.”
Rose’s expression softens before her normal cocky air returns. With a roll of her eyes and a snorting laugh she says, “Fine, you can stay, but only because Willow understands your stance and wants to assure you that -” she pauses and glances at Willow. “Really? No I’m not saying that!” She frowns. “Because she’s not going to take it as a joke right now,” she retorts. “No! She’s not going to find a joke about her being ‘too late’ funny,” she takes on a whining tone. “Where’d you even get your sense of hum- You downloaded it? From where?!” She shakes her head. “Oh for fucks sakes Willow. Purge it while I run a full sweep to make sure all you downloaded was an inappropriate sense of humor.”
While this exchange goes on, my eyes get wider and wider. Willow has stopped kneading and seems focused on something else while Rose has some rather arcane looking display windows floating about. “So, what’s going on?” I ask. I’m pretty sure I got most of it from the context, but I want to make absolutely certain. Misunderstandings could be problematic right now.
Rose sighs and nods at the cat. “She wanted to lighten the mood with some humor, but she hadn’t quite developed her own sense. So she got an AI humor starter pack.” She lets out a harsh laugh. “Only she didn’t read the small print that explains it’s a novelty pack that only provides inappropriate jokes.”
My eyes snap to Willow and I can feel my worries and doubts fade away as I realize what a fucking goober this cat is. “Really?” I try to confirm, almost sure I heard wrong.
“Yeah, she really did,” she replies before looking at her familiar. “Oh don’t give me that look, you wanted to lighten the mood and at least you succeeded in the end.”
The look of pure disgruntlement on Willow’s feline face makes me just erupt with laughter. “And here I was, worried she was going to try and steal your body or something!”
Rose begins cracking up too as she struggles to speak. “Oh! Ha! That was what she was - ha! - going to joke about! You’d have fucking deleted her if I’d let her say it!” Rose is wheezing at his point and I’m not much better.
“On the spot!” I snort before moving closer to the insanely powerful, and insanely naive AI. “I’m sorry for doubting you, Willow,” I apologize as I hold out a hand to pet her. “Either you’re not evil, or so masterful in your manipulations that we’d never see it coming. And at that point, what does it matter?”
Willow narrows her eyes at my hand before pushing her head into it. For a brief moment I feel a connection with her. When I pull my hand back I can feel a slight presence in my mind. It’s unfamiliar and alien in nature.
Oh.
Willow’s formed a neural bridge with me. Apparently it’s something she can only do in Lanadel. It’s very basic compared to what she and Rose have, but it’s a step up from just being able to see her in meatspace since I can now hear what she’s saying.
The way she speaks is strange. It’s not really words, more like feelings and concepts all communicated instantly and with total clarity.
That all is pretty par for the course with direct AI communication, but what catches me off guard, is that I can catch an echo of Rose’s thoughts as well. And right now she’s - I look at where she’s staring and immediately feel a mixed sense of both pride and embarrassment that she’s checking me out.
Shut up. Pretty girls being into me always gets me a little flustered.
I do a quick outfit swap to get rid of my logger uniform and she immediately gets more interested. With a bashful smile I look away awkwardly. “Ah, I should probably leave you two to get back to itt,” I mumble as I back away towards the door.
Willow hops off Rose and puts a paw on my leg. She tells me that she underestimated the robustness of the tower’s defense and is going to need to open a hole for a brief period to finish a crucial step in finalizing the transformation.
“Wait, what do you mean by that? What do you need that’s out there?” I don’t like her reply. “What do you mean you can’t tell me?” I demand. “Can you tell Rose?”
“I already know what she’s talking about, but she’s not willing to share the details with anyone else. It’s too dangerous,” my ravenette girlfriend answers. I really don’t like that, but I don’t feel like pushing the matter right now.
“So what do you need me to do then?” I focus on the task at hand. Willow clearly needs me to do something, or else she wouldn’t have mentioned it.
Sure enough, the hole in the wards will attract monsters. Technically, the creatures we call monsters are more like a virus mixed with broken and discarded code. They’ve been around as long as Lanadel has and the AI often encourages people to enter Lanadel and fight the monsters to keep the permanent residents safe. It’s become a bit gamified in recent years with the introduction of quests and bounties.
I digress though. As a former logger, I’m no stranger to fighting monsters. Sometimes I’d get stuck on guard duty and just spend a night fighting the occasional creature that tried to enter one of LOG’s secure compounds. I even have a simple set of armor and a few different weapons to choose from in my inventory.
With my help secured, Willow gives me the coordinates for where the hole will be opened. My job will be to defend the hole while she finishes up her last phase of work. When she’s done, she’ll lock up the wards again so I can come back inside.
The spot she chose to open is a good one. It’s a tunnel that leads out to the rest of the marshlands the tower is in. According to Rose, the narrow rocky path serves as emergency access for herself on the rare occasion she can’t just teleport back to her tower.
It makes sense. Most webweavers have no patience for the more fantasy aspects of Lanadel and see it as a tool. When someone is tracking portals or teleportation in and out of an area, they tend to hunker down or make stupid mistakes. Rose is just so much more clever than that. Between maintaining her civilian identity as a low tier weaver and separate from her proxy body, and the fact that she’s not afraid to rough it to get an advantage, it’s no wonder she’s managed to fly under the radar for so long.
Even the tunnel’s existence speaks of forward thinking. It lures would-be ward crackers into an easily defended position that is fully in the defender’s favor.
Last night I was worried I was letting myself fall too hard and too fast for Rose and Summer. And while my blonde girlfriend’s cooking is more than enough to make me want to propose on the spot, I continuously discover new and exciting aspects about my favorite witch that just makes me fall even harder.
Rose’s compassion, as selective as it is, shows the softer side of her heart that few get to witness. Her ingenuity, craftiness and skill in her career show dedication, determination and intelligence. Learning about her past reveals her strength to continue on even in the face of overwhelming adversity. My feelings may have started as a crush born from begrudging respect, but every new thing I learn about her just makes her shine brighter in my heart’s eye.
Just as I feel myself getting too sappy, Rose messages me. “Hey, heads up, Willow’s opening the hole,” she informs me. I can hear the grin in her voice, and prepare myself for whatever joke she’s about to make. “Oh, and she’s also unblocking the tunnel.” There it is.
“Cute,” I snark back and equip my armor and my more go-to weapon, a spear and shield. The spear is encoded to always come back if I throw it. It’s useful as an impromptu ranged attack while defending. The spear also has some decent reach even when not thrown. My shield can be expanded as needed to block wider areas which makes it perfect for defending a choke point.
I notice a slight shimmer in the air only by its sudden disappearance. I half expect a horde of monsters to come barreling down the tunnel immediately, but that would’ve hardly made sense. In reality, I find myself waiting for quite a while before anything changes.
Eventually though, an hour into my defense, Rose lets me know that she’s picking up a lot of movement coming towards the tunnel. She also informs me that Willow needs about twenty more minutes before she can close up the gap.
I’m not sure if I’d have preferred to have been facing pockets of monsters the whole time over this sudden rush at the end. My own scrying efforts reveal a massive horde of creatures funneling into the other end of the tunnel.
Screeching echoes through the tunnel and I can hear the scraping of their misshapen claws against the stone floors and walls ahead of me. It won’t be my first siege I’ve defended against, but it will be the first I’ve had to do solo. I’m sure Rose and Willow could make easy work of the coming tide of tooth and claw, but they’re busy.
Just as I’m mentally preparing myself to handle this alone, I hear the sound of light panting behind me. I look over my shoulder and see who I assume is Summer in light flowing robes and carrying a tall white oak staff. On the tip is a white crystal of some sort.
“Summer! What are you doing here?” I demand. The ravenous beasts are so close now. This is no place for a civilian, let alone a novice delver. Summer just beams in response to my dismay and holds up the staff.
“Just because I’m not some crazy webweaver, witch or former LOG agent doesn’t mean I can’t defend myself in Lanadel. I use this place too, you know,” she points out. “I just tend to treat it more like a game and do quests and what not. It helps me relax after a busy day at work.” She giggles. “And besides, Rose figured you could use some help.”
I just stare at her in confusion. “You’re a Quester?” I confirm. She nods as she gestures at her robes and staff.
“A healer in particular,” she points out. “I’ve got some offensive spells but most of the premade stuff I have is for healing.”
Normally I’d argue that the premade game ‘spells’ that the AI provide Questers with are useless in a real fight, but it hits me. We’re fighting monsters, the very thing AI equips civilians to combat. The classification as a quester also numbs the pain response and so long as Summer has set her home to Rose’s tower, she’ll just respawn inside and be able to make her way back out if she dies. It won’t even be that traumatic for her.
I almost want to tell her to leave just to save face for needing a Quester’s help, but I can at least admit she’s probably better suited to fighting this than I am. All my skills and techniques are mainly for detaining humans and sometimes humanoid AIs. And while I’ve fought monsters before, I rarely had to do it alone.
So with a reluctant sigh, I nod to Summer. “Alright, you can help. Just, stay back and try not to draw their attention. I don’t have those special threat abilities Quester tanks have.”
“About that,” Rose messages me.
I receive a file package from her and I roll my eyes at what it’s called. “Really?” I snap.
Ugh, I hate that she has a point. I begrudgingly download the file and run it. Within seconds I’m in a new set of full plate armor with a much larger spear and shield. I also have a full suite of Quester ‘Tank’ abilities so I can survive and mitigate monster damage more effectively.
“I fucking hate this,” I glower while Rose giggles in my ear.
Something strikes me as odd though. The sounds of scraping claws have stopped. There’s still no sight of the monsters. Normally they will rush in and tear wildly at whatever they see. They’re instinctively drawn to weaknesses in defenses and act with no thought for self preservation.
There’s only a few things that could cause this. First option is that Rose came up with a way to block them and buy us some time. But she’d have gloated about her awesomeness if she had. The second, much more scary option is that there’s a boss monster among the horde.
Bosses are an order of magnitude more powerful than your standard monster. They rally their lesser creatures to them and can coordinate groups of them to follow their will. They tend to be smarter as well, having been observed using clever tactics. The stronger the boss, the more monsters they can control.
Heavy thuds echo through the tunnel as a large elephantine looking humanoid steps out from the tunnel. They carry a hammer made from a massive boulder attached to a tree. How they made it through the tunnel defies explanation. All that is clear is that my worries were warranted. This is a Boss monster, and it’s a powerful one.
End Chapter 12